I’m currently in Budapest… We had to leave Amsterdam a day early due
to some conflicts with airline tickets.  I’m not too disappointed with
that, however.  We were able to go to the Banana Bar and the Heineken
tour, and that’s all I really wanted to do in Amsterdam. 

I got the shit scared out of me, though.  We were at the airport ready
to go to Budapest, when I found out that I had some leftovers from a
coffee shop.  I didn’t really want to make a huge scene, so I just left
it in my pocket.  Then the alarm went off when I went through
security.  Apparently my sandals make the European alarms go off. 
Anyway, they didn’t find the goods, but it did make my heart beat a
little faster.

Oh, and Amsterdam has two security checkpoints. They have a normal one
and then they have one at the gate.  It’s probably good, too, since
they stopped a guy carrying a hand gun.  The guy said he was coming
from a flight from Japan… This all happened right in front of me…
before I boarded the plane. 

I’m finding that I really like Budapest women.  90% of them are
absolutely beautiful.  So far, everyone that we have met on the trip is
very friendly.  Most people that we run into speak some English, so
getting around hasn’t really been a problem.  We did find out that
Budapest has two types of cabs.  They have private taxis and taxis that
are owned by a single corporation. If you take a taxi in Budapest, you
want to stay away from the private taxis.  They tend to charge about
3-5 times the amount that the corporate taxi would charge.  You can
spot a corporate taxi if it has the telephone number on the side.

Yesterday, we went to a spa.  Apparently Budapest is famous for their
spas.  I have to admit that the spa was amazing.  The size of the
outdoor pool was really impressive.  We sat around the pool and swam
for the majority of the time that we were there.  I plan to go to
another spa tomorrow for a massage.  They do different massage styles,
but I think I’ll go for the Thai massage. 

Last night, we went to a couple pubs.  One was called Fat Mo’s and they
had a nice cover band that was playing.  The other place was called Old
Man’s.  I’ll just say that the people were very friendly there… 
We’re planning on going to Buda Beach tomorrow.  It’s a huge outdoor
club with a house dj tomorrow.

Budapest is two cities, really.  On one side of the Danube, there is
Buda and the other side is Pest.  We’re currently staying in an
apartment in Pest.  The apartment worked out great.  It only costs
about 15,000 HUL (about $80) for the 4 days that we’re here.  Other
than that, we found out that Budapest is best to visit on the weekends,
if you want to go out.  The discotek are really only used Thursday
through Saturday.  With that bit of knowledge, we’re headed to Prague
for the weekend.  We’ll be there for 4 days, also…